| AdminHistory | The history of the Birmingham Corporation Gas Department's Industrial Research Laboratories goes back to September 1909, when the Gas Committee issued instructions for certain experiments to be carried out to ascertain the possibility of using the town's gas as an industrial fuel. With several large furnaces working in the city, by 1911 it was deemed essential to establish Metallurgical Laboratories to enable the Gas Department to deal with the many difficulties which had to be overcome to meet the requirements to the manufacturers. During the First World War (1914 - 1918) the laboratories were engaged full time in testing war materials of various kinds, including the heat treatment of structural steel members used in the manufacture of aircraft.
Until around 1938 and 1939 the Industrial Research Laboratories, which comprised Physical Testing, Chemical, Heat Treatment and Industrial Heating Sections, were scattered throughout the city in buildings or on works owned or operated by the Gas Department. The erection of new premises in Brasshouse Passage, Broad Street, made it possible to house these various sections under one roof, a great convenience especially as the work of all of them had increased greatly with the introduction of rearmament.
An advisory service was was also provided free to industrial consumers, and the industrial load increased rapidly. In addition, following a nationally sponsored scheme begun in 1938, Birmingham became the Midland Industrial Centre and advised the surrounding undertakings on their industrial gas utilisation problems.
It was not long before the Physical Testing, Chemical and Heat Treatment Sections were wholly engaged on war production work and a dispersal plant for carrying out such work, erected by the Ministry of Supply at Mere Green, was staffed and operated by these sections. Assistance was also given by the laboratories to local manufacturers by the Industrial Heating Section in solving their heat application problems and a considerable amount of gas-fired plant was installed for numerous heat treatment processes.
In January 1947 the laboratories were reorganised, most of the chemical section being taken over by the Chief Chemist. The remainder of the section was combined with the Physical Testing Section and these, having no direct relation with gas manufacture and usage following the nationalisation of the country's gas supply, was transferred to the Public Works Department (see BCC/1/AO/D/1) in April 1948. The Industrial Heating and Heat Treatment Sections were grouped to form the Industrial Department, which remained as part of the Gas Department. The space saved in the Brasshouse Passage building by this reorganisation was utilised as offices for the Accountancy and Purchasing staffs, which was moved from the Head Office in the Council House Extension. |